After achieving clinical validation earlier this year, ReCode Therapeutics has called up a new CEO to take on the mission of advancing programs for cystic fibrosis and primary ciliary dyskinesia through the clinic.
CEO Shehnaaz Suliman’s mission is not exactly complete at ReCode Therapeutics. And yet, she happily passed the baton to her mentee, Heather Clark, in early August.
“[When] the best candidate is already inside the company running a strategy and trusted by the board . . . a search is a good way to lose time,” Suliman told BioSpace. “We chose momentum. There is no doubt in my or the board’s mind that she is the best leader and the best placed to take the company through its next generation.”
Clark was made for the job, even if it took some prodding from leaders like Suliman to accept that the moment had arrived. She joined ReCode in 2022 and has been leading the strategy for cystic fibrosis (CF), the indication that has become the main focus of the biotech’s gene editing work. Clark spent 20 years at famed CF biopharma Vertex Pharmaceuticals working on CFTR modulator therapies, including Trikafta and Alyftrek. In that time, she also built a strong relationship with the CF Foundation, which is providing new funding to ReCode.
All told, Clark has been working on CF drug discovery and development for 27 years. She knows what has worked and what patients have been left behind.
“For the patients who have modulators, it’s a survivable disease. For those that do not have modulator therapies, it’s still a fatal disease, and so there’s a lot still left to do, and so that’s why I’m still in it,” Clark said. Modulators cover about 90% of the CF population.
She remembers being wooed by Suliman to join ReCode in 2022 after she took a break from CF to work on Neiman pick disease type C, a rare metabolic disorder that causes a toxic buildup of fatty substances in the brain. Clark was happy with the work and change in direction but felt called to at least consult for ReCode as the company delved into the CF space with the inhaled mRNA therapy RCT2100.
“After a lot of conversation, Shehnaaz is quite persuasive. I did decide to move to ReCode, and I think it’s been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made,” Clark said.
The two then set out to grow ReCode from a research organization into one with a clinical pipeline.
“Shehnaaz and I, we were building the company together. The company that I started at in 2022 is not where we are now,” Clark said. “Along the way, Shehnaaz started mentoring me and saying, you know, you’ve really got a lot of potential here, and the way you think strategically is the way a CEO would think.”
CF was fast becoming ReCode’s primary focus, although the pipeline also has an asset, RCT1100, for primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD), a rare, inherited disease characterized by progressive lung destruction. Suliman and the board began preparing Clark to rise from head of the CF disease area to CEO of the whole company.
“It was not something I had been thinking of. In fact, it surprised me a little bit because that wasn’t on my radar,” Clark said. “She really mentored me and worked to set this up in such a beautiful way.”
Suliman said the process was very deliberate. The transition was executed over 18 months, rather than suddenly in reaction to a news event. That’s somewhat unique in the biopharma world. Clark had the board’s full support along the way, too.
“Heather is someone that I worked with in lockstep to develop, and I am so confident that she will do nothing but thrive and is going to be an amazing successor,” Suliman said.
In May, ReCode reported proof of concept data for its selective organ targeting (SORT) lipid nanoparticle (LNP) platform. More than half of patients with PCD who took RCT1100 in a Phase 1b trial achieved meaningful improvement in mucociliary clearance at 12 weeks. At the time, Suliman said the results “demonstrated the promise of inhaled genetic medicine delivery to the lung” for the first time.
With clinical validation, it was time for Suliman to step aside and let Clark take over.
“What I love to do is leave a company in a far better position scientifically, clinically and financially than when I found them,” Suliman said. “ReCode is a case study in how we women can continue to support each other.”
Suliman has done more than that, leaving behind a legacy of execution and leadership that Clark says will live on at ReCode.
“She has tremendous drive,” Clark said. “I think it’s almost unheard of the things that we accomplished with the size company that we were.”
While Clark has her eyes set on driving RCT2100 and RCT1100 deeper into the clinic, Suliman has some time to consider her next role.
“I think the scientific, clinical and patient impact part of my legacy isn’t written yet,” the outgoing CEO said.
At ReCode, that legacy—which could be confirmed with a future FDA approval for either of the company’s assets—will be in Clark’s hands.
